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Following My Dream Of Becoming A Professional Web Designer

This post is part of our Customer Spotlight series. If you have an interesting story to tell and would like to share your experience with WordPress and Elegant Themes on our blog, please contact us!

Introductions

My name is Geno Quiroz and I am a freelance small business consultant and back-office service provider. By back-office services, I mean work usually done in the back-offices of small businesses such as bookkeeping, human resources, marketing, web design, SEO management and such.

The birth of Quiroz.Co came out of the intersection of two circumstantial paths. The first path being in an economic period of our country’s history that found many small business and organizations unable to maintain full-time or even part-time employees for such services. The second being a lifelong desire to be my own boss and to create the ultimate workplace experience I always dreamed about.

A Bit About My Backround

Being a graphic designer at heart and former graffiti artist in my early teens, I was drawn to the prospect of designing on the web. I saw the web as a way to legitimately express my creations across the world. And so back in the pre-Dreamweaver days of web design (early 90’s), I started using NetObjects Fusion and began learning how to design websites from a GUI perspective.

In my early 20’s, I started down a very diverse career path that had nothing to do with websites. This was the 90’s when business was booming and opportunities seemed endless. At the age of 20, I began working for a thriving tech company. By the age of 23, I had moved up the ranks from assembly line worker, assembly line supervisor, receiving supervisor, inventory control manager, contracts administrator to international sales manager.

And with the new influential position, I was able to convince this company to hire me to build their website to better reach my international clientele base. Thus my first customer as a web designer and the beginning of my first venture into the world of freelance which I named R.O.C. Designs (Really Outta Control Designs).

Because of the success of that first project, I was able to convert many of the company’s dealers and distributors into my own personal website design clients. Then came the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000’s and this company that had such a great influence on me would be purchased by a larger European corporation and dismantled shortly thereafter. So in the ensuing years, I found myself drifting from job to job trying to find that same thriving and opportunistic workplace environment.

Because the corporate world changed drastically after that burst, I found myself more and more discontent working for companies that simply could not provide that same experience. I also found it harder and harder to find clients for my freelance web design gig.

Trying To Keep The Dream Alive

So as I drifted from job to job gaining valuable & diverse experience, I still managed to squeeze in a few web-design related projects into the mix. Whether it was a new website for the company I worked for, or building them an intranet, or updating their existing one, even volunteering to manage my church’s website, I managed to keep the web design dream somewhat alive.

But over the years I failed to keep up to date with new standards and web design tools and I found myself falling farther and farther behind in the industry. I thought the wonderful world of web design had passed me by.

Getting A Second Chance

Then in 2012, our family was at a personal “Strategic Inflection Point”. So there we were, my incredibly amazing wife of five years Vivien, with our two boys (ages 2 & 3), and me having just stepped down from an influential position in ministry, also having just resigned from a part-time job that could not satisfy, and having just moved into a new city and into a new home with an extra room for an office.

With so much change taking place all at once, the dream to start a home-based business and be my own boss began to rise from the grave. It started with months of going through Craig’s List seeing all the part-time job openings for these back-office services. All of which I could do well, but did not want to get stuck working for a place that could not provide that thriving environment I needed.

So I figured I would promote my ability to perform these services and to help them to come up with more efficient and effective systems they could also maintain on their own. Within 5 months I was able to amass a few steady clients giving me about 30-40 hours of work per week. Unfortunately they were mostly bookkeeping gigs.

The Dream Revived

It would not be long before I started getting more website projects. I started by using html/css templates that I could easily implement and customize and I cranked out several websites in this fashion. It also helped to refresh and expand my limited development knowledge base.

But I knew I had I had to jump into CMS headfirst if I was really going to take the web design portion of my business any further.

Then Came WordPress

Then a friend of mine asked for some help with his church website. The host was shutting down its business and he needed helping migrating it over to a new host and he only had 7 days to do it. So I said sure, no problem. I can do that. Then I found out it was a customized WordPress theme. In fact, it turned out to be an Elegant Theme template (Deep Focus) but I would not know the significance of that until much later. Thus began my 7 day crash course in understanding the basics of WordPress.

To be honest, I was very intimidated by it even after completing the project successfully as I did not have access to the ET support at that point. But when another client of mine required the ability to get in and maintain their own site, I knew I had to go with WordPress.

Elegant Themes To The Rescue

After scouring the web for templates and providers, I placed my bet on Elegant Themes. I loved the idea of one price for all themes and I had already worked with one of their themes (Deep Focus). So for my first WordPress site, I used the SimplePress theme for my client RPO Designs.

There was not a lot of customization required by the client but there was enough to get me more familiar with the themes engine, and more importantly I found out just how amazing the Elegant Theme tech support team is. They helped me understand the structure and coding far better than I could have done taking classes or reading books. They were amazing!

So for my next WordPress project, I went with the Chameleon theme for The Appleton Grill. I had a great time customizing it and learning all kinds of new tricks and techniques. In fact, I felt so comfortable customizing this template; I did a website reboot for my first web design client, Max Builders Inc for free, converting their existing site into a WordPress site. In just a few hours, I was able to completely recreate their exact same website in WordPress using the Chameleon theme. I am now confident that there are already enough fully developed templates in the ET library to design anything my clients want.

Of course my favorite project has been my own website Quiroz.Co which is based on the TheCorporation theme. I get to do whatever I want with it and it makes for great experimentation.

What’s Next

As far as web projects go, I am in the early planning stages for a new client who designs and develops zombie game apps. This looks to be a very fun project. I plan to use the Aggregate theme and have already come up with a mock up the client really liked.

As for Quiroz.Co, one only knows. Our gross revenue rose 132% in the first 12 months which tells me there is a real market for this type of business. But out of all these services we provide, there is nothing I love doing more than working on websites. Perhaps it’s time to hire so that I can continue doing what I love. Either way, here I am at 38, and I finally have the dream job in a thriving environment and it was well worth the wait.

Article thumbnail image by PureSolution / shutterstock.com

By Geno Quiroz

Geno is a business consultant with a background in accounting, graphic design, sales, marketing, business management, information technology, operations efficiency and over 18 years of experience as a website design and development freelancer.

Geno,
You wrote a very inspiring story of what you have accomplished so far. I am envious of your graphic arts background. I wish I could say that the Elegant Theme tech team support has been there for me but they haven’t. They only refer me to their forum and their faq page. Good luck to you in the future & spend as much time as you can with your boys. They grow up so very fast.

I feel very blessed to have you back in my life Geno, we have know one another for about 14yrs now and timing is everything especially gods timing. I love to read how you have gone through your journey with such purpose, prospective, and perseverance and your faith only grew . Keep the Dream Alive n inspiring people like myself so we can all achieve The Dream ! Love you Bud

Web design is exciting … I focus to help small businesses, companies that begin to emerge, before working with html and css like but my brother told me, forget about html, you must learn wordpress! and here I am. excuse my English (Google Translation)

Thanks Jesse. I am currently living in the Monterey Bay area. I am one of the Pastor/Elders at Connect Los Banos (Formerly Calvary Chapel Los Banos). But I am originally from Santa Barbara. In fact I see that your business services some of my old stomping grounds. I lived and worked in Camarillo for about 7 years.By the way great website.

Really awesome story! And I LOVE what you did with TheCorporation theme! I recently redesigned my company’s website using that theme.

Your business model is really interesting. My company is losing our receptionist/secretary (she is retiring) and we are in the process of trying to figure out how to replace her. I know many companies are in the position we are in (needing staffing, but having a low cash flow). Sounds like you have really found a niche that is needed!

Thanks Manuel. For me, I knew my target audience was going to be small businesses and non-profits. So I strategically volunteered my services to some local non-profits and community based organizations for free. It gave me experience, contacts, and an instant referral stream. And second, build relationships. It may mean finding a way to take someone out to lunch or out for coffee and don’t be so quick to pitch. Use an approach that says you are interested in their business but you understand it’s in the clients best interest to have a relationship they can trust.

Really very interesting post. Too many people today dream of becoming a professional web designer. But it is fact that becoming a professional web designer is a very challenging as it requires a lot of dedication, hard-work and creativity.

While reading your great story i became more interested when i read the line, “even volunteering to manage my church’s website”. You’re really awesome! I’d love to visit your church online . God Blessed You!

I am so happy you are living the dream of becoming a web designer! I was one for 16 years and have returned to my former career in fashion.

I am phasing out my web development business and my fashion business has exceeded my sales in web design. The thing we both have in common: passion for our careers.

I am glad there are people like you out there getting into web design. I had to change careers for both health reasons and financial reasons. In 16 years, my blood pressure went into stage 2 hypertension and I gained 50lbs not to mention all the Diet Mountain Dews, long hours and many junk food meals.

My advice to you is make sure you take care of yourself. Being a web person requires a lot of sitting, sitting, and more sitting while looking at a computer screen. Take breaks often and keep researching new ways of creating web design and development. Also, if clients and/or co-workers start harping on you about things, make sure you have folks to vent to. Half the time, they don’t understand the process and make things more difficult than they should be.

I lost the passion of web design and now found it again in my reunited field of fashion. Make sure you don’t loose the passion. Makes a world of difference.

Thanks for your tips Margy. I totally agree. It takes some real balance. Something I am learning but have a long way to go. So glad to hear that you have been able to transition your artistic and design abilities towards something as fantastic as fashion. Good luck in your transitions

Thanks Michael. The Elite Rental site is currently in it’s first phase. It cost $600. The next phase includes integrating PayPal manager into the website so that people do not need to get re-directed to PayPal. Although with the release of 2.0, I may just integrate it with the shopping cart/woocommerce feature instead. Then phase 3 includes a back end portal so that members can log in and view their personalized rental information. Its going to be spread over the year so that the client can spread out the expense. Shoot me an email if your interested in a personalized quote.

Awesome story Geno! I am so glad ET sent out your story from April in my email this morning. I feel I got to know you a little better. I really love your work and reading your story has opened my eyes a bit. I have been so impressed and focused on Divi that I have neglected the fact that ET has 88 other great themes! God Bless my friend, keep on keeping on and thank you for sharing.

Hi, your story is same as mine, and I recollected my days. Recently I felt I am doing websites for my clients in old ways. Same photoshop, dreamweaver. Need of hour was responsive websites, later I started using templates, but still not satisfied as it was not having my creative ability to be show cased. Many websites I made. But then someone told me they use wordpress. I knew nothing about wordpress. Had checked it few years back but that time I had no idea the power of wordpress. I always thought it to be non creative way of creating websites. Finally when I saw a few websites, I felt I need to do wordpress. Followed a fewyoutube videos and it does nto take time for a prod0fesaional to realise the power of wordpress. Though late, atleast I started using it.

I found your story to be very inspiring. I have been dabbling with web design using WordPress for about 3 years now and I feel very confident with my skill level, however, there are days when I am not so sure of myself and I think I under price my services. I saw your price chart and I thought it was spot on and thought maybe you could give me some pointers on the amount I should charge.

Thank you Dora. I tried to find an email on your website but I could not find one. On my website, you will find various ways to connect with me. Send me a message either by email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc and I would love to share some ideas. Just remember, its easy to doubt yourself when venturing out or when business is slow. Sometimes you have to drop the price every now and then to keep busy. But your estimates will get better in time.

Most importantly stay connected with other designers. Both on here and on other forums such as “Divi Users” on Facebook. The best thing about the Divi community is that it is full of encouragement and even potential customers.

Connect with me through my website and I will be more than happy to share more thoughts on the subject!

Geno, I absolutely loved your story it’s very inspiring and also hits home with me as since i have come across ET i am now using only ET’s! I currently am building up my business, just as you have done, however still working full time and doing the websites with every last bit of spare time i have.. but hope to work toward doing websites only eventually! Good luck with everything in the future!

Thanks Steve.Good luck on your endeavors. I hope you are able to find that balance so that you can get more time in doing the web stuff. I am grateful to have been able to transition into more and more web design as time went on since this article.

Excellent story and success, Geno. I do have a question and hopefully you will see this. How do you go about charging for your services as far as the office end? HR, Quickbooks, Accounting, Payroll. This seems to be the hardest part of any business. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Clint. For me it was simply a matter of the going hourly rate for my area. For my first few clients I started with the average hourly rate. Once a had a few clients I raised my rate to that slightly higher than the average.Now I only take on clients at a premium rate. I am able to do this because of the number of satisfied clients. All my back-office service business and website business is referral based. I have not spent a single penny on advertising nor have I had to do any local networking. All my business has come to me via incoming emails or my website contact form. The key is “Going The Extra Mile” for all your clients.

Thanks Vinodh. On January 1st 2015 I launched a new venture to support my thriving web design business. Things have gone so well since writing this article that I was able to outsource most of my back-office services so that I can focus on web design and new web related ventures. Using Divi of course. In fact I pretty much use Divi exclusively now. You can see my newest business venture here http://montereypremier.com/

Thanks David. It was an honor to be asked by ET to share my story. Thank you for reading it and taking the time to comment. The website was done with Divi and they make it very easy to create a page like this with Divi’s awesome built in features. I wrote a tutorial on how to make that large hero image on the top of the homepage just like on my site. The difference is that on the tutorial I use an image instead of the video. But using the same tutorial you can add the video to the background instead of the image just by using the video feature in the section settings. Here is the tutorial based on my very own site. http://quiroz.co/ghost-home-page-and-change-menu-background/